Immagine raccontata

"I've got a gift for you, Debora". I pull a beanbag, a small bag full of lentils, off my backpack, an I give it to my sister in low with not much firm belief. I'm waiting for her refusal when indeed I'm watching her astounded picking up the bundle and placing it on her backpack. Today I praise the company of two assistants, my wife and her sister. Thanks to their presence, I have at one's disposal an adequate photo equipment so shared out: I carry the camera, the objective 24, 105, 180 and the tripod fasten outside of my backpack. To my wife goes the "300", six sandwiches and a water bottle. To my sister in low, forced to leave the heavy fruits and a water bottle in the car, are left only the Thermos and the "beanbag". During my trip I hope to get to test whether the tripod just bought is really versatile and solid enough, although the fickleness of the carbon. I doubt I'll be disappointed, since previously I've got to try an economic one that hardly supported a 180 objective. I wonder if I'll get the chance to try the new "300". Definitely I'll use it to immortalize some spring flowers. The 300 focal allow isolating the subject separating it from the background of the disarranged undergrowth and so arranging a nice portrait.

We set off along the mule track that runs alongside a torrent broke off by little waterfalls and deep pools. In summertime this first stretch is really crowded due to the lacking in gradient and to the possibility to dive in refreshing water. My mates chat with calm, but do not let plentiful blooming with soft colors not hidden by bare trees slipping away. They are able to recognize the Helleborus (niger, viridis, foetidus), the Erythronium dens-canis, the Leucojum vernum, the Galanthus nivalis, the Hepatica nobilis. Sometimes they invite me to take pictures, but I refuse, explaining shortly that the objective doesn't see like the human eye and that different elements make an image valid. Puzzled and a bit disappointed they set off again and the speech broken down.

"Dario! Dario! Come over here!" Cries out my wife. I, that meantime had extended the step and was ahead, turn all in a sudden and run towards her asking for explanations. Roberta tells me to calm down and once I get to her I find out with immense astonishment and happiness a Salamadra Salamandra still in the grass. This animal evoke primordial ere to which the human being, now believing of being the master of the world, have never really taking place. In spite of lots of animals that camouflage themselves in order to protect from predators, the Salamandra adopts a singular stratagem: the gaudy yellow-orange spots feel that its skin produces irritating substances. Meanwhile while my wife has been boasting about having discovered it, I pull the camera out and invite the two assistants to hand me the "300" and the "beanbag". I lie down on the ground with my feet hanging down to the torrent, where by lucky circumstances the water flows lower, put the N80 on the "pillow" and get as much closer as possible to the Salamandra. The stems of the grass providing a natural backstage, and the rerun from the below allow me to realize a set image that transmits the feeling of being there among with the animal. The Velvia film and the insufficient light force me to use a slow time, but fortunately the Salamndra stays still excluding the breathing movement under the mouth. Rising up I notice a rock set down on the edge of the track and I think in a loud voice that if the Salamandra was on that natural pedestal, I would have obtained a good portrait thanks also to the homogeneous background. From many shots to flowers, I learned that the correct background handling is as important as the subject immortalized. Debora offers to pick the small defenseless animal up and set it down carefully on the rock, but she's not up to touch it with the hands and so I hand her a glove. I place the tripod and hook the objective up to the sphere head. The salamandra stays a few seconds still, caressed by my sister in low and then take shelter with solemn awkward gait towards the lair. I am a bit clumsy either: it's the first time I use a "300" and I'm not aware how the sphere head decentralized would behave. Anyhow I action the clicking button again and again, trying to exploit the static moments.

Put away the equipment in the backpack, we take our way gratified for the unexpected encounter. I see, where the track became a path, a blooming of Erica (Erica Carnea) against the light in which two specimens grow isolated and higher. I let Debora and Roberta going ahead and set the N80 on the tripod I get the framing ready. I push the depth of field button spasmodically and set the diaphragm opening, looking for the right compromise between the way to read the subject and the background uniformity. The thin blooming is moved by a light wind continuously and so I try to get the ephemeral moments of immobility not sure of the result.

I reach my fellows and they infirm me they have seen another Salamandra moving slowly on the other side of the torrent. The track goes back up the wooded and narrow valley, plowed by a small river now almost dry. Just a few pots full of water are left. On the bottom of one of those I see a sexual dimorphism of two common toads (Bufo bufo) while mating. In a ravine of the surrounding cliff I find a shelter of two other salamandra. One carries in a strange way a dead butterfly on its back. I’m up to make an ambient image, where the wet and covered by musk rocks make a pleasant geometric effect. On the way again, and I close the line; sometimes I hear the girls’ chats, sometimes I let my thinking wandering around. All of a sudden Debora sees a butterfly (Pieris napi) landed on the fragrant, but poisoned Daphne mezereum. I get the equipment ready quickly, trying to calm down and focusing on the correct composition, truthfully not really difficult. The wind gusts are quite strong, by luckily the butterfly doesn’t seem to fly off yet, instead tries to anchor up to the flower. I wait with patience, my head under a scarf for the right moment, helped by the square grid of the viewer and I action the shot cable many times, hoping some images would not be moved.

We take again our lucky trip planned to get some rest at the very first cottages we suppose not being very far. I increase the step in order to verify though. Now the track run alongside some limestoned cliffs, best place for the Primula Auricula to grow up. I find two buds of this plant covered by a substance similar to the flour. I try some artistic shots with the intent to highlight the two flowers not yet bloomed.

Meanwhile my two fellows reach me and went round the cliffs we set on a field clear of snow. I have just a sandwich and then I go on patrol interested by the Helleborus niger spread on the undergrowth. Chosen an interesting subject I take the tripod and the “300” and get back to my Helleborus. The curious and restless red ants swarming on the filed obstruct me to take the best position in order to make the framing. But, as I was about to shoot, an ant climbs on the Helleborus. When I get back to the rest place, my sister in low has been enjoying a deserved but not quite silent nap, warmed by a tepid sun. I take advantage of it to enjoy my wife’s company and a Speck and cheese sandwich. It’s time to get back: We prepare the back packs and take the way back.

When I had chosen this valley because of the torrent and the spring blooming, I would never have thought to get to try my brand new purchases in so unique and exciting situations. But I hadn’t considered my two…assistants mascot!